The ability to thermally shape and form glass sheets is increasingly relevant to various industries, such as the automotive industry. Production of glass structures is a complex process, which is constantly changing due to increasingly stringent environmental and safety requirements. Demand for intricate glass shapes with high optical quality and low weight is growing, for example in the automotive industry as governmental regulations require increased fuel economy and reduced emissions. The ability to make automotive parts, such as for automotive interior decorations and screens, from thinner glasses may translate to lower vehicle weight, improved fuel economy, reduced emissions, and/or improved vehicle weight distribution (e.g., lower center of gravity).
Thermal shaping of glass structures may also be applicable for other products, such as architectural glasses and glass covers for electronics such as televisions, computers, watches, smart phones, and other display devices. Growing consumer demand for thinner devices with higher optical precision and lower cost can drive the need for cost-effective methods and apparatuses for making high precision thin glass shapes.
Prior art methods for shaping glass include placing glass sheets on a shaping mold, conveying the glass through a furnace or lehr to uniformly heat and soften the sheets, and allowing the softened glass to sag under gravity to assume a desired shape. The shaping mold serves as a surface around which the glass sheet can be formed to the desired shape. Various shaping molds are available for shaping glass structures, such as molds machined from bulk stainless steel or ceramic materials, welded beam molds, and rolled metal sheet surface molds. Machined molds have the advantage of high precision (e.g., as low as about 0.1 mm), but have the drawback of increased expense. Welded beam molds and rolled metal sheet molds are lower in cost, but are not as precise as machined molds, typically providing precision in the range of 1-2 mm.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide apparatuses and methods for shaping and tempering glass structures that provide improved precision and/or accuracy, while at the same time being cost-effective. To reduce manufacturing costs and/or processing times, it would additionally be advantageous to provide an apparatus that can function, at least in part, in conjunction with existing systems for bending and tempering glass structures.